Herbert von Karajan

Herbert von Karajan (German: Herbert von Karajan, German pronunciation: [ˈhɛɐbɛɐt fɔn ˈkaraˌjan]; April 5, 1908 – July 16, 1989) was an Austrian conductor, keyboardist and director. Karajan was active on the conducting stage for 60 years. He has led many of Europe's top orchestras and served as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for 34 years (from 1955 to his death in 1989). He was passionate about recording and directing, and left a large amount of audio-visual materials for posterity (as of 1988, he had released more than 10,000 records and about 700 recordings), including numerous orchestral music, opera recordings and opera films, covering works by European composers from Baroque to post-romanticism, and even some modern music schools. Some of these works, such as Beethoven's symphonies, have been recorded many times. Karajan enjoys a high reputation in the music industry and is even known as the "Conductor Emperor" in the Chinese-speaking world.